Systems that are intended to be used, alone or in combination with other systems of the same design, such as floating bridges or pontoons, must be such that they can be used satisfactorily and, to the extent possible, in an equivalent manner both in the water and on solid ground. They also must be able to cross wet breaches and, especially without external help, the boundary region between water and solid ground, such as embankments or river shores. Finally, these systems, which are intended to form floating bridges or pontoons, must be capable of withstanding different types of static and dynamic loads, depending on whether they are used as a floating bridge or as a pontoon.
When such systems are used in or on the water, that is, as a pontoon or as a floating bridge, it is desirable for them to have the largest possible dimensions in terms of a circulation surface or a platform for transport or loading, to be able to handle the greatest number of personnel or materials as rapidly and as economically as possible. At the same time, when these systems must move over solid ground, the traffic code or similar regulations, and practical aspects in terms of dimensions and weight place limits on the dimensions of such systems.
One type of solution to this problem consists, as implicitly indicated above and already extensively used, of forming floating bridges or pontoons from a plurality of systems of the same design. This solution makes it possible to comply easily with the constraints of moving these systems on solid ground, and, at the same time, it opens nearly limitless possibilities in terms of dimensions for both floating bridges and pontoons.
However, when one uses systems designed from a plurality of individual systems, a situation that is frequently encountered is that the combination of two or more complete systems would result in a floating bridge or a pontoon that is too large, and it would therefore be desirable to have a system of smaller modules and to be able to combine it with one or more full-sized systems.
A first possibility of varying the dimensions of the systems for a floating bridge or pontoon consists of increasing the width of a floating system, for example, to clear a pedestrian path, to be able to move more easily around the vehicle or any object placed on or circulating on the floating system. Such an enlargement is achieved, for example, by arranging rolling pats on the floaters of the system, or by the manual addition of circulation surfaces when needed. To ensure the security of the personnel that will circulate such an enlarged system, it was necessary to experiment with raised boards or other manually deployed means.